The Narrow Road Home

During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said many shocking and interesting things. One of them that I have contemplated a great deal lately is found in Matthew 7:13-14.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (NIV)

Lately, it seems to me as if the narrow road is getting narrower and narrower. I’m feeling my sinfulness more and more. Don’t get me wrong. I know it sounds like I’m saying the walls are closing in around me – but I don’t think that is the way it really is. In fact, it’s not like that at all. I’m not suggesting that I am feeling enslaved in any way by my sinfulness. I’m just more aware of it. That greater awareness make me want to live a life that is purer and more perfected by the Holy Spirit and less controlled by my sinful nature. In that sense, the road (which is really no more or less narrow than it has ever been) “seems” narrower than it has in times past. I am less tolerant of my own imperfections than I have been. I guess when you think about sanctification, that kind of thinking is to be expected. In his “Outlines of Theology”, A.A. Hodge says the following:

“The more holy a man is, the more humble, self-renouncing, self-abhorring, and the more sensitive to every sin he becomes, and the more closely he clings to Christ. The moral imperfections which cling to him he feels to be sins, which he laments and strives to overcome. Believers find that their life is a constant warfare, and they need to take the kingdom of heaven by storm, and watch while they pray. They are always subject to the constant chastisement of their Father’s loving hand, which can only be designed to correct their imperfections and to confirm their graces. And it has been notoriously the fact that the best Christians have been those who have been the least prone to claim the attainment of perfection for themselves”.

Believe you me. I have no delusions that I have reached some form of holiness state. Quite the opposite in fact. The closer I get to God, the more I see how holy he is and how unholy I am. I see myself for exactly what I am – a sinner saved by grace who deserves nothing short of eternal punishment, but who has been shown unbelievable mercy by a loving God.

I guess the reality of it is that the gate and road that leads to eternal life (aka – salvation) has always been and remains forever very narrow – One Way… JESUS… However, the road that leads to abundant life (aka – sanctification) begins very broadly and gets narrower ever day. When we first receive salvation, we are so thankful for the forgiveness of sins. We are legally deemed “not guilty” for all the horrible things we have done (and still do for that matter). As we grow spiritually, though, we desire not just to be deemed not guilty, but to be truly innocent. I want that for my life. I want to walk the narrow path of innocence and not to wander from it. I want to reach that point where the true condition of my heart matches my legal standing with God. I want to be at the place where justified by faith meets the reality of inner holiness. And while I realize that the two will never truly meet until after I die (aka glorification), maybe it is not such a bad thing that road seems like it is getting narrower. I am much happier on the narrow road than I could ever be on the broad one. It leads me home.